NCDC says Norwich should commit $1M for Reid & Hughes building

Tuesday

Jul 2, 2013 at 12:01 AMJul 2, 2013 at 2:02 AM

If city officials want activity to return to the squalid downtown Reid & Hughes property, they must be prepared to spend more than $1 million as a springboard for change, top economic development officials said on Monday.

Adam Benson

If city officials want activity to return to the squalid downtown Reid & Hughes property, they must be prepared to spend more than $1 million as a springboard for change, top economic development officials said on Monday.

“This isn’t going to get done if you’re thinking the developers are going to come in and do it. This is anything but a conventional process,” Norwich Community Development Corp. President Robert Mills told the City Council during an informational session to review details of the agency’s recently completed request for proposals to find a suitor for the vacant 193-201 Main Street parcel.

Last month, the council charged NCDC with writing a new request for proposals after rejecting a planned $7.1 million development by Fairfield-based builder Bruce Becker to build a mixed-use complex that included 21 apartment units and 8,500 square feet of Main Street retail space.

NCDC’s RFP puts a price tag of $6 million on the renovations, including the city’s outlay.

Officials said would-be investors need to know up front how much money the city is willing to commit for site improvements and suggested the total could be around $1.2 million in bonding and other incentives.

“We do not believe there is a zero-cost option for the Reid and Hughes project. It’s not about ‘If we spend money on Reid and Hughes,’ it’s how we invest in that property,” NCDC Vice President Jason Vincent said.

In May, a city-sanctioned study said it would cost between $574,000 and $797,000 to tear down the 132-year-old department store or save its unique iron façade.

There are also structural issues to address, like a damaged roof. Aldermen charged NCDC with coming up with an “emergency management plan” to evaluate the building’s structural integrity before the RFP goes out to bid.

The agency also recommended it be appointed project manager and have first review of all responses to the document, eventually submitting the top three applicants to aldermen for final approval.

Aldermen were supportive of NCDC’s outline.

“It allows us to open our vision to different concepts,” said council President Pro Tempore Peter Desaulniers.

James Quarto, chairman of the now-defunct Reid & Hughes Planning and Development Committee, which fielded one bid from a previous RFP in 2012, said he was pleased with NCDC’s work.

“I think it’s an outstanding proposal. I’m certainly behind it if it gets the ball rolling in a positive direction,” he said.

City Historian Dale Plummer, who has advocated for the preservation of the building, agreed.
“I’m pleased they have a plan to market the RFP and are at least now talking about doing something with the roof,” he said.